New Study Shows First Nations Guardians Programs Deliver Major Return on Investment
September 10, 2026
Mashteuiatsh: September 10, 2026: New research released today finds that First Nations Guardians programs deliver significant benefits for community wellbeing, environmental stewardship, and personal transformation. Conducted by EcoPlan on behalf of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative, the study provides the most comprehensive assessment of Indigenous Guardians programs to date.
The evaluation included 68 First Nations Guardians programs across Canada and used a comprehensive return on investment model. The report, called Shared Benefits: A Value Assessment of First Nations Guardians Programs, found that each dollar invested returns multiple dollars’ worth in value:
Every $1 invested in Guardians programs generates an average of $12 worth of benefits for communities, including strengthened stewardship and land protection, preserved cultural knowledge, and deeper connections between youth and culture.
Every $1 invested in Guardians programs provides an average of $9 worth of benefits for the people who participate, including greater skill building, connection to culture, and health and wellbeing.
Guardians are trained experts who monitor, restore, and manage lands and waters from coast to coast and from major population centres to remote Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas.
For the Guardians programs that participated in the research, “taking care of territory” and “cultural wellbeing” contributed most to total value and were consistently ranked among the highest-priority outcomes by participants.
These community-level returns represent only part of the value generated. Guardians programs also deliver major public benefits that extend beyond communities.
Guardians programs provide social, cultural and environmental management, planning, monitoring, compliance, and stewardship across vast and often remote territories. They help sustain landscapes that provide clean water, abundant wildlife, carbon storage, and other shared values. And they represent a cost-effective, community-led model that contributes to Canada achieving its commitments to conserve biodiversity and address climate change.
“It’s rare to find one initiative that delivers this much value—for lands, for communities, for people, and for Canada as a whole,” said ILI Executive Director Valérie Courtois. “The evaluation confirms that investing in Guardians creates wide-ranging benefits.”
“The report also shines a spotlight on what makes Guardians programs unique,” Courtois continued. “People often tell us that becoming a Guardian led to positive changes in their lives. They take on the responsibility of caring for lands and waters, and they feel the healing power of connecting with cultures and contributing to communities. Guardians work is transformative, and this evaluation conveys what’s at the heart of it.”
The evaluation framework reflects the total value communities experience from Guardians programs relative to their investment or program cost.
Traditional return on investment studies measure financial gain by comparing monetary inputs to monetary outputs. For First Nations Guardians programs, however, this narrow financial lens misses the core values that communities prioritize: cultural revitalization, governance strength, social cohesion, ecological stewardship, and intergenerational wellbeing. In contrast, this assessment adopts a comprehensive return on investment framework, in which value is understood as extending well beyond financial or market-based returns.
“Indigenous Nations are recognized leaders in stewardship, conservation, and climate action, yet typical evaluation tools used to show the full value of this leadership have not kept pace. This report helps fill the gap,” said William Trousdale, Principal & Founder of EcoPlan. “The assessment model goes beyond direct financial benefits to also account for non-financial benefits that communities identified as important, such as environmental stewardship, community capacity, and governance.”
